Tag: Agency

Divine Quotes

Insights on Important Topics

The True definition of agency is simply: The ability to do good.

It is a fruit of the Lord’s atonement. There is nothing negative about it. Everyone has Choice, even the adversary, for he chooses how to carry out his purposes. He wanted no agency, therefore he denied himself that privilege. We all get what we want. Let us all be better agents with our agency, to act, and not be acted upon.

Mercy, Grace, and Agency

“We cannot earn our blessings, simply because we are not able to do anything good without Jesus Christ. His blessings come after we do our part, yes, but it is only by His grace in the first place, that we can do these things.

First, His mercy stops our downward fall, offering us the gift of repentance, which is another fruit of the atonement. Then, His Grace, our great enabler, gives us the ability to do good and move forward. Truly then, everything good comes from God and Christ.

Finally, when at the judgement bar, after all our very best efforts, coupled and performed with Christ’s grace, it is still not enough. We are then only blessed and saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, as we are accepted of our Father, as Jesus Christ pleads our case before Him.” Hence the prophetic quote, “…we are saved by grace, after all we can do.”

Being Prepared – Self, vs. God Reliance

“All blessings, temporal, spiritual, emotional, mental, intellectual, social, physical, and financial, come from God. Acknowledgement of Him in all these things is of utmost importance. For as we exercise the truth of gratitude in our relationship with Him, our lives will improve, and our blessings will flow. We must not forget to rely wholly on Him, in the pretense of being “self-reliant,” for all good things come from Him, and not from ourselves.”

Earth, Time, & Good vs. Evil

“Our mother earth was created to save and exalt mankind. She is our foundation. Her battles against sin, war, and pollution, are as real as ours. Her works and fruits, are a testament of her love and praise for us, and God. Praise be to our God and our Mother Earth, Eden, and all our Lord’s creations upon her, for were it not for these, we, nor the atonement, nor the plan of happiness, could ever be brought to pass. Praise be to our Father God, and Savior Jesus Christ, for organizing this most marvelous plan of exaltation. For their loving grand design, upon our mother earth, and of having father time as the great separator, and Jesus Christ as our Holy Savior, within the safety of our wonderous probationary journey.”

The Worth of Souls, Eternal life, and Exaltation

“You are of unprecedented worth and value! Your life doesn’t just matter, you are central to God our Father’s plans, works, designs, and blessings for His children, and righteous purposes. Your eternal life, exaltation, families, and glory are more majestic, resplendent, dynamic, and wondrous, than you can even possibly imagine! You will be like God, living His lifestyle! How unspeakable shall be your blessings!”

Personal Revelation

“The three P’s of Revelation: Preparation, Pondering, and Prayer. Be spiritually ready to receive revelation, by living the Lord’s commandments. Allow quiet moments for the Gift of the Holy Ghost to work on, and qualify your heart and mind to be ready to receive your answers. Then, specifically ask for the things you need, and the answers to your soul. The Lord will bless you, and answer you in the way and timing, and in the right way for you.”

Symbolism vs. Symbols – To Teach The Ready

While it is true that symbols can help teach people things according to their readiness, it is also true that symbols, although meant to teach the truth using symbolism, it is also true that at the very center, core, and reality of these truths, which are given symbolically, is the very, actual, and literal truth.

Shane

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God’s Agency is Different Than Ours

Ours is Second Class

Some say that God can do anything. That is actually not a true fact. God, in fact, cannot sin. He is past that stage of progression.

The true definition of agency is, the ability to choose good over evil, or simply, the power to do good. We cannot do good, but by virtue of the endlessly powerful act of our Savior’s atoning sacrifice experience. He is the One who makes agency possible, especially in this fallen world of sin, in which we now live.

Satan, in fact, could not start his plans of action, until time was brought into place, wherein he could then begin to manipulate the elements, and also, ultimately the children of God, according to his deceitful designs. This is why the fall was necessary for him to begin his stratagem.

Satan had explored extensively in heaven, before he was kicked out, ways to influence as a power, way beyond what it is intended to be. This “power,” influence, is actually what he uses, and what he calls his priesthoods.

With time now in action, and every entity, including people, becoming measurably defined by numbers and values, Satan now uses his influence, and knowledge gained of these values and numbers, and the properties and weaknesses associated with these entities and people, to influence and manipulate them to do wrong. However, these can still choose the right way, by utilizing agency, but it becomes more difficult, by means of Lucifer’s calculated, or combinational attacks.

This is why agency is so vital. We need the power of Christ, given to not only sustain us alive, but also to give us an alternative to sin. Satan has lost his own agency, wherein he cannot, nor would he, even if he could choose good, would not. He’s that far gone in this stage of the game.

Shane

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The Most Splendid, Wondrous Gift of Agency

The Greatest Christmas Gift

The definition of agency is simply, the ability to do good. It is a fruit of the Lord’s atonement. There is nothing negative about it. Everyone has choice, even the adversary, for he chooses how to carry out his purposes. He wanted no agency, therefore he denied himself that privilege. He has placed himself in a position were he cannot, and will not do anything good. We all get what we want. Let us be better agents with our agency, to act, and not be acted upon.

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Shane

Jesus Second coming
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The Atonement and Fall: Part One

The Ultimate Prodigal

Adam and Eve were innocent before the Fall, in which they did not have a full understanding of agency. Agency is the ability to do good, with a full understanding of right and wrong. They had choice, but not yet a full agency, until they could fully discern between right and wrong. After the fall, they were given a special gift for themselves, and all their posterity. This gift is called the Light of Christ. In the scriptures, it is described as God giving enmity to Eve and Adam, and their seed (offspring). Enmity is a hatred toward or for something. As God gives only gifts of righteousness, the gift of enmity given by Him, is a gift of a righteous hatred, for that which is evil. For agency, is the ability to choose good, under the full knowledge of good and evil.

They used their partial agency, to choose to be given full agency, by succumbing to the Fall. There also had to be an opposition to the Fall, for mankind to be given the opportunity to be reconciled with the Father. Only Jesus could do this. He is the perpetuation of the plan of God for man. It was God’s holy will to offer up His Son, to swallow up all sin via the bitter cup (literally). But he shrank not, and drank the utter dregs, finishing His preparations for mankind, as was His father’s will and design.

Before the Fall, in Adam and Eve’s innocents, they could do no good, for they knew no evil. They had limited agency, but no knowledge of consequences, because they had no sin, nor law given, but only two commandments. To not partake of the fruit, and to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth – to have children.

God’s plan for the fall to take place, was one in which the atonement was also already in place. It worked in an eternal sense, in that it would cover all of mankind, both before and beyond the time it actually took place. God could not create Adam and Eve in a fallen state, because He cannot by nature, do anything evil. Adam and Eve had to be given life, and then only two commandments given, to then choose for themselves the partaking of The Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This way, God could place them in a new world, without causing or creating sin, for God is not able to sin, as is Satan not capable of doing good. For there must needs be an opposition in all things, thus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the opposition for mankind, and Satan to God.
See 2 Nephi 2:11 below.

11 It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. (2 Nephi 2:11)

After Eve chose to trust in her feelings, and believe that they needed to fully understand the difference between good and evil, and Adam also, understanding the Father, without fully understanding the import of their decision’s outcome, partook.

God knew that they would eventually come to the point where they would realize they needed something more to help them grow, in which they would choose to partake, and need the Lord’s saving atonement, for we do not just repent to become like Jesus, but it is in the actual repentance process itself, that we become like Him. This is one reason we needed earth life and the fall in the first place, and why a redeemer was chosen and prepared from before the foundations of the earth.

The Fall, or Adam’s transgression, is a spiritual death, because Adam and Eve were separated from the presence of God and given agency to act for themselves and not to be acted upon. See 2 Nephi 2:26

They were also given the great power of procreation, so that they could keep the commandment to multiply, and replenish the earth and have joy in their posterity. See Genesis 1:28

In this new and fallen state, they experienced a bodily change as well, in which they were made able to have children. This is necessary, because God gave them the commandment to multiply, and He always provides a way to obey Him.

We need to be tried, reproved and repent, in order to grow up to become like Him, even as a child can grow up to be like their parents. God had to create Adam and Eve in innocence, and give them the commandments He did, for God is a God of righteousness, and cannot create a state of sin or Fall.

It is an eternal principle that to everything good, there is a little bad, and to everything bad, there is a little good, circumstantially speaking. This is known as, there is an opposition in all things. This is why out of all the trees in the garden of Eden (Eden being our Earth’s mortal name), there was only one tree which had seeds, which was a fig tree in the midst, a tree originally created by Christ Jesus, but later wrought upon by the evil influences of Lucifer and his devils, to become an unhealthy, seed bearing fruit for mankind. Thus, the Father commanded them not to partake of it, even knowing that they would.

• The principle of perfection

Because it is not within Heavenly Father’s nature to do or introduce error, He had to say to them, do not eat, or you shall surely die, all of which is true. Yet, He also wanted us to have children and become like Him. For in so doing, Adam and Eve would have to make their own choice to partake. In this we would have to walk where God has walked, do as He has done before, and follow the course He has followed. For as man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become. Therefore, we needed the fall, the light of Christ, and a redeemer. Praise be to Adam and Eve for taking the courageous leap of faith and trust, to make the choice to partake.

See Teachings of the Presidents of the Church- Joseph Smith, pg. 41 below.

God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make Himself visible, —I say, if you were to see Him today, you would see Him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man. (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church – Joseph Smith, pg. 41)

Everything has purpose and meaning, and God is over all His children. Now, speaking of God’s plan, the adversary is very much a part of it. We need opposition to permit, or rather give us permission to learn and grow. This need is stated in the earlier mentioned scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11, that there must be an opposition in all things.

Because the Lord took on all sins, and the source from which they spring, He also takes the ones from which they spring. Yes, somewhere, sometime, in the great eons of the eternal lives and onward, the ultimate prodigal son, will, having been burned and purged clean in the lake of fire and brimstone in outer darkness, finally come to himself, and begin his long arduous trek home. For God is a perfect God, with perfect love, and a perfect plan, and He will not lose any of His children.

So, is there hope for the rest of us? Definitely!

Shane

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Relationships – We Can Change People: Part Two

Our Actions Do Influence Others

In every exchange, whether passing by someone and making eye contact, or having a good common discussion with someone, we effect each other. A person who is an agent of light, love and Spirit, will make a good change. No matter how small or big, their exchanges in light, will always extinguish dark.

This is why we must act as righteous individuals, and not be acted upon. However, for an unrepentant, darkened individual, unwilling to follow the light, who chooses to be dark in spite of a righteous exchange with someone, they will in essence harden their hearts more, and become even worse than they were before.

Every action has an equal and opposite action or reaction, meaning that we can react negatively to a negative action, or we can act positively to a negative action. The same would hold true for the opposite.

We can act positively, and have a positive outcome on someone who is negative, even if we can’t see it, or notice the change from our exchange.

We must seek the Spirit in all we do, and listen to and obey His promptings early. In this knowledge we can effectively and joyfully be successful member missionaries, and effective in all we do in life.

Shane

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